Smartphones set to get even smarter

OUR mobile phones of the future will be able to diagnose illness through the way we smell, allow people to "touch'' items they see online and transform shopping through reality apps that allow you to try on clothes.

Super-smart phones will also be able to detect weaknesses in buildings and bridges through sensors, interpret a baby's cry and smell city gas leaks or hygiene issues before they become a problem.

Juniper Research predicts that by 2017, more than 2.5 billion mobile augmented reality apps will be downloaded to smartphones and tablets.

This new breed of augmented reality apps will allow people to virtually try on clothing.

It can also be used to add to the shopping experience in bricks-and-mortar stores, such as having information about a product appear on your screen when you take a photo of it with your camera.

The concept is the next step in technology of scanning a QR code on a price tag, or like the new feature in the Ticketek app released this week that identifies your Facebook friends in the crowd at a concert.

UBS analyst Nicolas Gaudois predicts 2013 is the year that mobile phones with unbreakable plastic and flexible screen will go from being featured in a prototype to becoming a reality.

Looking ahead five years, that flexibility means the phone of the future is set to be lighter and foldable.

Although the prediction of a foldable screen assumes the phones of the future will even need a screen. Google says its glasses, which were released only as a prototype this year, will eventually most of the features we expect from a smart phone.

This week a group of visionaries at IBM offered their insights into technology five years from now.

IBM Research Retail Analytics associate director Robyn Schwartz says the vibrations that our phones currently make in silent mode will eventually evolve to be able to communicate a "lexicon of texture''.

"Within the next five years, the phone will be such an ubiquitous part of our everyday experience of understanding our world, that we will be able to completely understand the sensation of touch through our phone,'' Ms Schwartz says.

"The phone will be able to help you to feel fabric, to be able to share the texture of a basket woven by a woman in a remote village halfway across the globe.''

IMB Physical Analytics Hendrik Hamann says computers, smartphones and tablets will, within five years, have a sense of smell and be able to take action in response to certain odours.

He says doctors armed with a tablet device will be able to diagnose a range of conditions based on the way the patient smells.

In the home, technology will "smell'' a disease and transmit that information to a doctor.

"Your phone might know you have a cold before you do,'' Mr Hamann says.

Five predictions for the future

1. Your mobile phone will detect illness from the way you smell and be able to report your condition to a doctor.

2. Your mobile phone will not be a mobile phone. It will be a wearable device, that's included in your glasses or clothing.

3. Remembering countless passwords will be a thing of the past. Our smart devices will be smart enough to recognise us through biometric sensors.

4. Our phone devices will be our electronic wallets, able to do payments and serve as our boarding pass, ticket, and even our locator, with indoor positioning improving so that it knows where we are even inside a building.

5. Shopping will evolve with augmented reality, with devices able to communicate with our other senses, including touch. You'll be able to giggle at LOLcats and pat them afterwards.